If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Obituary - Artists outside India

Bob Hoskins Has Died Aged 71

Actor Bob Hoskins has died aged 71 from pneumonia.

The English actor was best known roles in films such as 'The Long Good Friday', ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, ‘Mona Lisa’, ‘Hook’, Nixon’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’. His final role was ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’.

He was almost as famous for his appearances in the long running BT and British Gas adverts.

The actor announced in 2012 that he had retired from acting on 8 August 2012, due to his ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease.

Eli Wallach, the chameleonic stage and screen actor who died Tuesday at the age of 98, was one of the most prolific and enduring performers of his time.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised by Polish immigrants, Wallach served in World War II and afterward became a charter member of the Actors Studio, along with wife Anne Jackson, director Elia Kazan and fellow thespians Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman and Shelley Winters.

As one of the original Method actors, he would spend a seven-decade career bringing his characters to life and exploring what made them tick, whether they were thugs and criminals or, less frequently, shining heroes.

Related story: Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson: An extraordinary partnership
Related story: Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson: An extraordinary partnership
Susan King
Here are but 10 of Wallach's memorable movie roles — five from his early years and five from his later years.

"Baby Doll" (1956): Wallach often said his first film was also his favorite. Directed by Kazan and adapted by Tennessee Williams from two of his one-act plays, "Baby Doll" starred Wallach as a sleazy but smooth-talking cotton gin owner who seduces his rival's virgin bride to avenge an act of sabotage.

The film ignited controversy with its racy sexual undertones and was condemned by Cardinal Francis Spellman and the National Legion of Decency. Still, "Baby Doll" performed decently at the box office and earned four Oscar nominations, and Wallach also won a BAFTA prize for most promising newcomer.

lRelated Eli Wallach dies at 98; actor best known for two classic westerns
OBITUARIES
Eli Wallach dies at 98; actor best known for two classic westerns
SEE ALL RELATED
8

"The Magnificent Seven" (1960): The first of Wallach's two famous outlaw roles came in John Sturges' western remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai." Wallach didn't play one of the titular heroes — whose ranks included Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson — but rather their nemesis, Calvera, the leader of a gang of Mexican bandits.

As usual, Wallach brought nuance to what could have been a one-note role, infusing the silk-shirted, gold-toothed villain with menacing charm.

"The Misfits" (1961): Wallach followed up "Magnificent Seven" with a supporting role in John Huston's drama, which featured a screenplay by Arthur Miller and was notable for being the final film of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.

Eli Wallach: 1915-2014
CAPTION
Eli Wallach: 1915-2014
Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times
Actor Eli Wallach in October 2010 in New York. He grew up in the tough Red Hook section of Brooklyn with a desire to act.
CAPTION
Eli Wallach: 1915-2014
Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
Film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow, producer/director Francis Ford Coppola and actor Eli Wallach at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in February 2011. Wallach received an honorary Oscar.
CAPTION
Eli Wallach: 1915-2014
Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
Eli Wallach arrives at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011. In a remarkably diverse career, the veteran New York Method actor appeared in the noir thriller "The Lineup," the western "The Magnificent Seven" and the Tennessee Williams psychosexual melodrama "Baby Doll," as well as the Sergio Leone...
CAPTION
Eli Wallach: 1915-2014
Bart Bartholomew Museum of Tolerance
Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood at the Museum of Tolerance International Film Festival gala honoring Eastwood on Nov. 14, 2010.
CAPTION
Eli Wallach: 1915-2014
Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
Actor Eli Wallach, director Francis Ford Coppola and historian Kevin Brownlow pose with their awards at the second annual 2010 Governors Awards in the grand ballroom of the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood on Nov. 13, 2010.
Wallach brought an unnerving angst to the ranch hand Guido, who pines for Monroe's beautiful divorcée despite her involvement with Gable's aging cowboy.

"Lord Jim" (1965): Wallach starred opposite another big star, Peter O'Toole, in Richard Brooks' three-hour epic based on the novel by Joseph Conrad. O'Toole played the disgraced English seaman of the title, and Wallach once again portrayed a villain, the warlord known as the General.

cComments
Got something to say? Start the conversation and be the first to comment.
ADD A COMMENT
0

"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966): Wallach returned to the realm of the western opposite a newcomer named Clint Eastwood, who was just breaking out of his "Rawhide" role on TV. Eastwood was "the good," Lee Van Cleef was "the bad," and Wallach was "the ugly," a.k.a. the grubby, spirited Mexican gunman Tuco.

Wallach was associated with the character so deeply that passersby would whistle the film's musical theme (by Ennio Morricone) in his presence for decades to follow.

"The Hunter" (1980): Wallach reunited with "Magnificent Seven" costar McQueen in what would be the latter's final movie, a thriller based on real-life bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson. McQueen played Thorson, while Wallach stole scenes and injected some humor as a nearsighted bail bondsman who enlists his services.

Related story: Eli Wallach, an Actors Studio veteran and theater stalwart
Related story: Eli Wallach, an Actors Studio veteran and theater stalwart
David Ng
"The Godfather Part III" (1990): Wallach joined Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather" trilogy to play the elderly New York mob boss Don Altobello, a longtime ally of the Corleone crime family. Altobello apparently didn't learn that it's unwise to cross the Corleones — he did so and received his comeuppance in the form of a poisoned cannoli.

"The Two Jakes" (1990): Wallach had another supporting role in the much-delayed sequel to the classic 1975 neo-noir "Chinatown." Jack Nicholson reprised his role as private eye Jake Gittes and directed the film, which unlike its predecessor underperformed at the box office and met with mixed reviews.

Wallach once said in an interview, "The trouble with that movie is that you had to see 'Chinatown' the day before you saw 'The Two Jakes.'"

"The Holiday" (2006): Wallach didn't always play tough guys. In Nancy Meyers' Christmasy romantic comedy, he played a kindly old man who was once a famous screenwriter during Hollywood's Golden Age. Wallach's costar Kate Winslet would later declare Wallach her "very own Sexiest Man Alive" at a gala honoring him.

"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" (2010): A working actor to the very end, Wallach made his final screen appearance in Oliver Stone's follow-up to the 1987 financial drama "Wall Street." At age 94, Wallach once again made the most of a supporting role, this time as a wise old banker predicting a financial apocalypse. His most memorable line wasn't even a line, but an ominous whistle that said it all.

It's a greatloss more for Sivaji fans. Omar Sheriff was the comperer at the Afro-Asian Film Festival and was fortunate to announce the name of V.C. Ganesan @ Nadigar Thilagam to receive the best actor award...It's really a great loss for the Film Industry globally. May his soul Rest in Peace.

"Omar was my first leading man in the movies. He was handsome, sophisticated and charming"; Barbra Streisand tells PEOPLE (magazine). "He was a proud Egyptian and in some people's eyes, the idea of casting him in Funny Girl was considered controversial. Yet somehow, under the direction of William Wyler, the romantic chemistry between Nicky Arnstein and Fanny Brice transcended stereotypes and prejudice. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Omar, and I'm profoundly sad to hear of his passing."

My own thoughts:Casting a Jewish woman and a Muslim man (Barbra Streisand & Omar Sharif) as the romantic lead players in a Hollywood movie was really controversial at that time, to say the least! In the middle east, and in the rest of the whole damn world, we need people who have the courage to break with the silly traditions, in order to make planet earth a better place for "human beings" to survive in!

Breaking the monotony of Television by Doordarshan, when Cable Television invaded India in the beginning of 1990s, Music Television played a major role in innovating the taste and composing of music in India. Till then western music was deemed to belong to a very low percentage of Indian population. But the advent of Pop Music with its aesthetic stunning visuals opened the new avenue in the field of cinematography and music composing. The picturisation of songs and music entered a new era and saw multiple dimensions. This was due to the increasing popularity of pop music in various genres by various music groups incl Michael Jackson, Prince, Enigma, and so many others.